Thanks for the map that is very helpful.
Does anyone know how the relay is going to work? I am doing the first leg and my husband wants to know how he will know I am coming and/or find me to start his run?
And will I get my medal when I finish my leg? Or when I arrive at Epcot via bus? Or do we both get them when he finishes?
Last year, the first runner got their medal right when they finished at their end of the race.
It looks from the information they've sent so far like things will be relatively similar...both runners go to ESPN together. The second runner hands their bag to the first runner to check at ESPN so that it will be at the finish at EPCOT. The first runner hands their bag to the second runner to check at the Animal Kingdom parking lot so thati t will be at the first runner's finish line. (It sounds a little confusing, but it actually makes sense).
The second runner hops on a bus with the other second relay runners, and gets dropped off in the parking lot at the Animal Kingdom. And proceeds to wait, and wait, and wait. Hopefully this year the video feed will actually work and you'll be able to see the start - but last year we couldn't. They DO have a DJ playing music and have characters out to get your picture taken with, though, just like they do at the main start line.
Your bib will have a corral identifier on it (I feel like it was the number 1-7, but I could be wrong about that). The second runner will wait for their partner in the corral that corresponds to their number. They suggest the people with the really fast first running partners go to the front of the corral and the slower partners stay to the back, but there's nothing to enforce that.
Luckily, I think they only allowed about 500 relay entrances last year, and when you split that out into 7 corrals, it really wasn't that hard to find your running partner.
On the other hand, there was no warning system to let you know that your running partner was getting close - you just had to have a decent idea of what their pace would be so you knew when to expect them, or have them send you a text message or something when they were getting close. (Others have mentioned having a text pre-programmed in so all the runner has to do is hit send).
After running through the Animal Kingdom, the relay runners turned one way while the regular runners kept going, so that the relay handoff didn't interfere with the "full" half marathon racers. This divide was clearly marked. The confusing part was that a lot of the first leg runners thought they were done as soon as they handed off to their partner, but in actuality, the two teammates ran together for a short way to cross the "finish/start" - so if people stopped too soon and walked, they lost some time.
As previously mentioned, the first runner then got their medal and headed to the bus to get sent over to EPCOT. I was a second runner, but I heard from my husband that this took FOREVER due to traffic issues with getting the buses to where they needed to be (due to road closures) - so don't expect to get to EPCOT extremely early, even if you're the first runner.
Also, set a place to meet after the race. I know they're changing the finish this year so it may be easier to find each other at the front of EPCOT, but last year it wasn't clear until we finished where we were actually finishing, so if we hadn't set a meeting spot, I'm not sure we could've found each other!
Hope that helps!
I just want to finish and not feel like dying
I'm thinking of signing up for the Princess 1/2 as well when that opens up
